We are getting a Pre Prod database for which we may have to create around 1200 users who will have account inside the database. Here are my concerns:

1.What is the best way for the users to connect to the database? We traditionally used Tnsnames.ora file but it would be cumbersome to go with that with so many users. We heard about Active Directory which could help users to connect to the database. Is that a proven way to go and how to implement it ?

2.What are the parameters we need to change/modify in our init/spfile to accomodate high number of users ? We are and will be using the dedicated connections. To me it seems that we need to modify the #process parameter to a number higher than >1200 at least. The memory management we set automatic as both SGA and PGA managed by Oracle. We already designated a large chunk of memory(8GB) to Oracle for doing the both SGA/PGA management for us.

3.What other issues we need to be concerned for database when so many users will be logging on to the database ? Most of these users will not use any storage to create objects.